BarleyNY

In the 2016 season would you rather the Bills make the Super Bowl and lose or lose in the AFC Championship game to a non AFCE team?

Wilkerson hasn't signed his franchise tag yet? I'm betting he's getting a "Remember, NO FIREWORKS!" text from his agent every hour.

Kim and I are the only ones in the building who can do this with our arms!

Agreed. If the offensive plan is to be a run first team with a vertical passing attack sprinkled in, then the defense will have to do better than last year. If it doesn't, then the Bills won't be able to stay in that game plan as much as they'd like.

I worry about a safety keying on Watkins. The KC game last year was eye opening to me. Sammy did a spectacular job in the first half. He beat double coverage because he was so fast that safety help wasn't getting there in time. He did a great job of getting executing his routes too. But in the second half he got shut out when the CB got aggressive and the safety shifted over him more. Another deep threat at WR opposite Watkins to take some defensive pressure off of him would help him and the offense immensely IMO.

Well, that's horrifying. I can't imagine what the family is going through. I never want to live in gator country. Horrific bug populations usually go hand in hand with gators and I can't tolerate them either. On a related note, my son's friend and his family are moving to the Orlando area next week. Shudder.

What a difference a year makes, huh?

And some people said the Bills would never win one.

I agree. There's a lot of head scratchers in the middle of that pack. KC at 11? The list Alex Smith as the QB so they're aware that he is still there. Ditto an Osweiler led Texicans team at 17 and a Sanchez led Broncos at 19. I'm not sure how it's possible to rate any of them as highly as they are.

It didn't come from Harbaugh. The info came from someone I know who is a reasonably well connected guy who has worked in the scouting field and is currently a sport writer. (A different source than I've reference before on some things.) It was off the record and he had no reason to do Harbaugh any favors. He just passed along some interesting info he couldn't write about.

I heard some inside info on that. Apparently Harbaugh (who I'm usually not a big fan of as a person) was strongly in favor of cutting ties with Rice immediately. Bisciotti and Newsome told him Rice was staying. The three showed a united face publicly (as they had to), but privately there was one dissenting voice. In this case I have to think there's something that hasn't come to light - injury, looming suspension, undisclosed positive drug test. Something.

I think I've covered my position well in my last and other posts on the topic, so I'm not going to restate it. I started to respond, but I'm just regurgitating what I've already said. It's all there. I will say this, however, and I'm not singling you out as lots of posters have done it: Watching my position mis-characterized and overstated so as to make it appear as though I have an unreasonable or extreme position got old a long time ago. I don't appreciate it. Saying Whaley should have gotten better value from the pick or that I think that Lawson with a torn labrum wasn't worth the 19th pick or that I'd have taken a different player under the same circumstances (Doctson, Jack) isn't the same as railing against Whaley, calling Lawson a bust or saying the season is lost. I've been clear about that, repeatedly.

Damn.

Lol

Not to mention a pretty severe obsession with steaks and steakhouses. He's a decent corner. His problem has been more of inconsistentency than anything else. He'd look great on some plays and very much not so great on others. I get that every corner can get beat, but he's not quite put it all together consistiently enough for most to consider him starter material. Its not that he's an Iggles corner, it's that he's their #1 corner that is surprising.

No ones happier about this than Browns fans, whose team holds the Iggles 1st round pick. Schwartz should be able to retool the secondary and get that defense playing well enough to get a serious look as the Iggles HC in 2-3 years when Pederson gets canned.

The Ravens gave up 4th and 5th round picks for Monroe when they traded for him in October 2013. That's not much for an 8th overall pick. Guess the Ravens will start the rookie Stanley at LT this season. It won't take much to get him now, but I'd make any pick conditional on playing time to hedge against a looming suspension or other issue. If available and engaged he'd be a big upgrade at RT so the Bills should do their due diligence here. As noted, his pay is reasonable.

I do love me some Paula's Donuts. Currently thinking a sour cream glazed would be great. It really is. I like it a lot, but the wife has herself a Prime addiction.

Something non-football/Bills related. What are you addicted to right now? For me it's Trader Joe's Salsa Authentica. It tastes great and has a true medium level burn. Hot enough to be addictive, but never ever overwhelms. It might be the perfect salsa. Also I recently spotted it on a Guy Fieri cooking show when he briefly opened his fridge. I backed it up and paused. No doubt about it. It was there. And why wouldn't it be? It's perfect over eggs at breakfast or with nachos as a snack. For the last few months I've been going through about a jar every two days.

I have loved mental floss for years. Great magazine and merch.

I guess they're not that close yet. Just before a deal is struck is usually when both sides bring out the heavy guns and rhetoric is most fervent. Coaches talk up back ups. GMs leak horrifically skewed alleged demands to the media. Agents do the same. Players skip practices and decide to vacation in another hemisphere. Then, almost as if by magic, a deal gets struck and everyone's happy and bestest buddies again.

I think two things are at play with Fitz: 1) It's not his age so much as it is that everyone knows that he's hit his ceiling. There's no upside. He's a bottom tier starting QB or a really good backup. The other overpaid QBs mentioned either got paid based on expectations (or mostly unjustified hope) that they'd improve and be worth it. Kaep was a weird case of getting paid large this season due to an injury guarantee. 2) He's in no hurry. Nor should he be. This is likely to drag on until the start of TC. Fitz is the Jets best option and there's not likely to be a better one come along before the season starts. But his situation could improve at some point. Some QB for some contender is going to get injured sooner or later. Or maybe Elway will see Sanchez play football. Either way he might wind up with another option that's much better from a ring chasing standpoint and still pretty comparable from a money one. I look at Denver and can't help but to think that they're just trying to get through this season with some chance at a repeat while biding their time. Notably, Brees looks like he'll be a free agent next season and I could see him chasing another SB in Denver while they see what Lynch is worth.

Gotta agree there.

Man, the Jest are screwing the pooch. Their spending and personnel decisions are getting to be a mess. They have a bad cap situation, no QB and it looks like they're looking like they'll lose their best from 7 player after this season. Oh, and they'll lose him in part to retain a guy with big character issues who could be suspended indefinitely with one more screw up. That ship has full sails and is aimed right at some big rocks.

Over a large sample size and/or in the long term, that is correct. Results of any small sample can vary widely from the expected result, however. For example, it's fair to judge a Hold 'Em player who calls 2-to-1 odds on an inside straight draw after the turn. Sure, it might happen to work out in that particular case, but that doesn't make it a good strategy. It's fair to judge it as a poor move even before the river card gets flipped over. In fact, the result of that one instance is meaningless with regard to judging the strategy. Sometimes the right move doesn't work out and sometimes the wrong one does.